Hello everyone! This is Rina and today I'll be giving you several tips to draw chibis.

This is just MY technique, that doesn’t mean mine is the only valid way. The art world is full of possibilities, so don’t limit yourself to what you'll learn here today. Experiment, change things you don’t like, add your own touch... Art is a lot more fun when you just let your imagination flow with the picture.

 

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Basic Proportions

Chibis are super-deformed tiny persons.

They should be around two or three heads. Any bigger than that will start to look more realistic and become a semi-chibi or even a regular fullbody.

That said, I don’t recommend following this rule to T but more like a guide to rely on if you’re insecure about how big each element should be.

 

Body shape

For the bodies I have a very simple trick; shape the torso after a bean, or a pear.

 

 

The butt will always be the widest part while the shoulders and neck should be kept rather small. By keeping in mind those shapes you can acquire a natural curve to their bodies that will also help you with the flow of the pose.

That’s what I do for my regular chibis, but I have a second style that's completely different. For this one, I shape the bodies after a rectangle for a more "cartoonish" look. The torso ends up being thinner and less curvy.

For their limbs you can play around a lot! The hands and feet can be small, or big, or simple, or very detailed. It all depends on the aesthetic you're looking for.

For example, my regular chibis usually have small but detailed limbs;

While on my second style I keep them bigger and simpler;

There are many many ways to draw them and none is wrong! So experiment and have fun!

Faces

Next, let’s focus on their faces!

Here are some things to keep in mind if you want your chibis to look as adorable as possible;

♦ Keep the face shape as round as possible, avoid extra pointy chins like you’d do with the usual anime faces.

♦ Keep the cheeks somewhat small too.

♦ Big foreheads are cute!

 

♦ Place the facial features (eyes, nose and mouth) as low as possible. If they’re too high up it may look like a realistic head plastered on top of a tiny body.

♦ The nose should stay pretty high up though, not up to the forehead but not too far down either, somewhere between the bottom of the eyes is a good place, it gives the character a cuter look. Or you may even want to get rid of the nose completely!

 

 

♦ Chibis usually have big eyes. The bigger those are the cuter the character will look like, just remember to keep them at a safe distance from each other. Keeping enough space for a third eye in between is a good starters guide. But smaller/simpler eyes can look just as cute too and they can make very funny expressions, son don’t limit yourself.

Detailed VS Simple

Chibis can be as detailed or as simple as you want them to be. And like I said, there’s no right or wrong way to draw them. For example, on my regular chibis I use thin lines, which allow me to add more details onto the clothes, hair, etc.

While for my second style I use thicker lineart so I can't add as many tiny details as I would do with the other.

The shading follows the same guidelines. On my regular chibis it's more refined, with more gradients and color variety. While on my second style I keep it simpler.

Now it’s your time to practice, guys! Don’t worry if you still struggle drawing chibis after this tutorial, I don’t expect anyone to become a master of chibi art magically after this. You just need to practice and experiment a lot with different chibi styles until you find the one that works best for you!

About the artist

Thank you so much for reading until the end! Remember that you can get early access to my tutorials and many other perks by supporting me on Patreon ♥

 

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